Arts > Theatre

Norwich Pride 2017

03/08/17

When the first Pride marches took place in the United States in 1969, no one dreamed of the turn of events we have observed in the last few years. It now seems impossible to imagine summer without the day of rainbow flags, face paint, and glittering costumes taking over the streets, and yet Norwich did not have its own Pride until 2009. As easy to forget as it may be, Pride wasn’t always a celebration, but started as a protest, a way to call out the discrimination and ask for something as basic as human rights.

As I walked the streets of Norwich on Friday, the day leading up to Pride, I stared at the flags hanging from shop windows, rainbows decorating banks and restaurants, City Hall lit up in six colours, and even the castle showing its support, and I wondered how I could be the only one noticing, the only one finding it extraordinary. People rushed past me, occasionally glancing at the rainbows as if they were the most natural addition to the city, but I couldn’t stop admiring them. It seems that the world has forgotten what these colours mean, oblivious to how important it is that City Hall lights up for Pride. In 1969, this would not have happened. In many countries, this does not happen.

On Saturday the city became filled with laughter, with big smiles and vivid colours, and the pictures we saw the next day were bright, in stark contrast with the palpable anxiety on photos from the Stonewall Riots. Pride is a yearly reminder of who we are, of how proud we are to be ourselves, but it is also a manifesto: we are still here, and we will always be here, fighting for our rights and the rights of our community, asking for more change, more respect, more to be done. The flag waving from the top of the castle is a statement of how far we have come and how, at least for one day, the world finally seems to be on our side.